It’s down to two for Coliseum

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Bruce Ratner is committing $229 million to his proposed renovations, which would reduce seating in the arena to 13,000 and add an outdoor amphitheater, a movie theater, a bowling alley, a House of Blues or a Filmore Theater, and retail space. The project would take an estimated 15 months.

Ratner’s proposal would bring the New York Islanders to the arena for six games per year, and it would also host Nets practices, boxing, lacrosse, arena football, college basketball and minor league hockey.

Spokespeople for both MSG and Forest City Ratner Companies said they could not comment on the contractual process.

The other two groups that bid on the Coliseum project were the Syosset-based Blumenfeld Development Group and Bayville’s New York Sports and Entertainment. Blumenfeld Development, led by Ed Blumenfeld and his son David, proposed building a brand new arena while spending nearly $800 million.

Bernard Shereck, of New York Sports and Entertainment, proposed renovating the Coliseum’s interior, with a focus on family-oriented events.

Brandon Palanker, a spokesman for Renaissance Downtowns, a development company that was selected by Mangano last November to be the master developer of the Coliseum site, said that the company has been working “behind the scenes” throughout the proposal-evaluation process, and talking with research and development, creative and high-tech industries to lure them to the area once a developer is chosen. “We have a lot of interest from the robotics industry,” Palanker said.

The company’s goal, he explained, is to create “high-paying jobs for our young work force,” adding that it is Renaissance Downtowns’ desire to connect the site with its development of Hempstead Village, a project set to break ground this year. “The key is to integrate … the right balance to create a very walkable, pedestrian atmosphere,” Palanker said.

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